Job Interests: Interested in teaching and research jobs in academia and industry R&D

BIOGRAPHYJoJo is a graduate student researcher at the University of California, Davis MEMS Lab under the guidance of Professor David A. Horsley. Her research is based on magnetic actuation of paramagnetic microbeads for microvalve and biosensing/synthesis applications. She obtained her BS in EECS with a minor in Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley, where she discovered her love of cleanroom crafting. Now, in addition to working towards her PhD, she enjoys kayaking at lab picnics and cake time.

Highly-Parallel Magnetically-Actuated Microvalves [BPN645]This project aims to develop highly-parallel, magnetically-actuated microvalves using CMOS- compatible technology. Current state-of-the-art microvalve technologies require extensive supporting experimental apparatus and do not yield true lab-on-a-chip functionality. Here, the focus is placed on true chip-scale valve arrays based on low-power, on-chip magnetic coils which are used to actuate 100 micron diameter magnetic spheres that serve as the valve sealing surface. Prior studies of magnetic bead manipulation by planar coils, spin-valve arrays, and rotating magnetic fields have focused on the transport of small 1~50 micron diameter microbeads. In this work, the paramagnetic beads are magnetized using an external permanent magnet, allowing milliampere-level currents to generate large bipolar actuation force for valve opening/closure. The magnetically-actuated valves are self-assembled over each coil in a large chip-scale array by dispersing beads onto the chip and magnetically trapping a bead on top of each valve seat. Successful development of this technology will have various applications in parallel chemical synthesis and bioanalysis devices.